The Last Song
The soft melody of the cello echoed throughout the hall. Its player pulled her brazilwood bow slowly across the strings, her hoof steady. The tune was soft, like the beat of a butterfly’s wing. The crowd sat silently with the occasional sniffle and cough but the cellist continued to pull her bow across the strings, echoing the sounds from wall to wall. The violins soon accompanied her, building atop the ghostly melody.
It was a sad sound, perhaps one of the saddest Octavia had ever heard. No, not the saddest. The saddest sound she ever heard was the last words of somepony she would never get to hear again. At the time they were said they were not sad, but as she thought back to them they seemed to be. She looked down at her hoof gliding across the strings of her cello and slowly closed her eyes.
A flash a white fur and a blue mane haunted her thoughts. Those purple glasses she always seemed to wear falling onto the pavement, the lens shattering into a thousand tiny pieces. She shut her eyes tighter, a single tear threatening to fall away. She could see Vinyl turn to her and laugh. As she walked across the street shouting back, “See ya’ Octy!”
Octavia felt like crying, her whole body seemed to shake yet she was still. Her hoof continued to bring her bow across the strings of her cello, the cello she had used since she was a filly, the one she had used in the ballroom the first night she had seen her. How she stood out from the other ponies, her electric blue mane and to wear glasses indoors, the aristocrats cringed at the thought. Octavia didn’t though. No, she had found her captivating. When she had played that night she could barely feel her bow in her hooves, her eyes were on that mare, the mare that stood out from the rest.
After the concert, as she packed up her cello and was heading out the door but there was somepony waiting for her. The mare she had been watching all night, had waited for her. Octavia had been panicked, that is, until the mare extended a hoof, a white rose was presented to her. “Vinyl.” She said. “My name is Vinyl.”
The melody continued, the violins had now increased their volume, the climax was coming soon.
It had been love at first sight and since then the bond they shared only grew stronger. The screeching of wood against pavement tore against her ears as the violins reached their peak. She couldn’t see the audience anymore. All she saw was red brake lights attached to a yellow taxi cab turning the corner, it’s driver, a brown stallion who had a black mane and a checkered flag from a cutie mark. She could see Vinyl’s crippled body laying in the street surrounded by purple shards.
The song was coming to an end. Vinyl’s ebony colored casket was being carried from the front of the room to the carriage awaiting outside, the stallions hooves clopped along the hard oak floor. Octavia wanted to cry and scream not to take her from her but it was useless. Vinyl was gone and there was nothing she could do about it.
The ambulance had come quickly after that. She remembers holding the mangled body of her marefriend in her arms. Vinyl was so cold. She hated being cold. No movement. No heartbeat. No life. The medics had to pry the DJ out of her arms. They tried to clean the blood out of her fur but Octavia refused. This blood was all she had left of Vinyl. Blood, shattered glasses, and the hollow shell of her broken body.
She was alone.
She pulled her bow across her cello, the last note. The hall fell silent. Ponies began to get up from their chairs and quietly exited the room. No need to stay anymore. No, Vinyl would be buried in Ponyville’s cemetery there was no reason to stay here now.
As the hall emptied Octavia began to pack up her cello. She felt a hoof on her shoulder and turned to see a tall brown earth pony standing behind her.
She sighed, her voice flat. “What is it, Concerto?”
Concerto removed his hoof. “Why don’t you come out with us tonight? It’ll take your mind off things?”
Octavia felt a pain in her chest. “How could I ever forget her?” She zipped up her cello case and threw it over her back. “Besides,” The stallion’s face flashed through her face. Vinyl’s killer. “I have things I need to take care of.”
Before Concerto could answer she trotted towards the doors to the hall. Tears brimming at the corner of her eyes. The sunlight stung at her face. How could the sun still shine without her?
She turned to look at the cart carrying Vinyl’s casket away. She sighed, her eyes dropped to the ground as she turned in the opposite direction. She’s dead and she’s never coming back.
She checked the pocket on her cello case. Good, the train ticket is still there. She trotted in the direction of Ponyville’s train station.
The twenty-minute ride to Canterlot seemed to drag on for ages. Screaming fillies, chit-chatting passengers, and all too friendly train staff. She felt isolated like the world was moving around her yet she wasn’t in this world.
Octavia was trotting towards the police station. She saw two guards posted outside.
She approached the door but two white wings blocked her path. “Sorry, no entry to civilians.”
Octavia took a step back. “But I was told to meet here. I have information about the hit and run of Vinyl Scratch.”
The guard’s wings remained in front of the door. The guard to the left responded, staring straight ahead. “Hit and runs are classified as Class E crimes and therefore need no witnesses to come forward. Be on your way.”
Octavia felt her eye twitch. “But I saw the stallion who murdered my friend.”
The guard on the right sighed. “Look, leave now. The cells are full enough as it is and we don’t need to go on any wild goose chases from some stranger.”
“Now go on, shoo!” Octavia felt soft feathers on her shoulders as she was being pushed backwards, her hooves digging into the ground.
The mare’s teeth ground together. The felt another push at her body. She turned her head and latched her teeth onto one of the guards wings with an audible ‘crunch.’ He screeched and started hitting her with his other wing.
The stallion’s face flashed through her mind. Blood stained fur. Broken Glass. She dug her teeth deeper into his feathers, reaching the skin underneath. The blood began to stain his feathers as Octavia bit down harder. She could taste the warm blood as it began to flow into her mouth.
The other guard was trying to pry Octavia off his partner by pulling on her sides. “Get off of him you b-brat!”
The guard wrenched Octavia off his partners wing. With a loud screech and a thud from Octavia hitting the ground the scene ended. She sat up and looked up at the guard, his wing was dripping with blood from where a tuft full of feathers were missing.
The guard was panting he glared at the mare. “You. What in your right mind were you thinking?”
Octavia rolled her eyes, now a dark shade of lavender, and spit out a mouth full of the guard’s bloody feathers and smirked. “If you can’t arrest a murderer then obviously I have nothing to worry about.”
She stood up and began to walk away. She wiped stray blood off of her mouth. She looked back and stared at the guards who were now arguing with each other. Useless. She looked around at the ponies that were walking on the streets of Canterlot. All of them.